About EL CHAVO!

I like poetry, romantic candlelit dinners, and quiet walks on the beach.

Huell Howser Visits a Lowrider Show

I’ve seen loads of Huell Howser episodes. But a friend recently mentioned this one that I had never seen. If I haven’t seen it, maybe you haven’t either. Huell visits the old Sports Arena (now the really nice home to the new Los Angeles Football Club) for a Super Show of Lowriders. It’s an awesome episode highlighting some aspects of Chicano culture. I really like the bike at the 14:00 minute mark, with the Jesucristo wheel, some fish in the bike seat, and a live scorpion to get some attention. Enjoy!

Click on this link to see the full episode.
https://blogs.chapman.edu/huell-howser-archives/1994/09/04/visiting-201-lowriders/

Fallen Anarchist Honored at Odd Fellows Cemetery…A Century Later

markeriww2

Thanks to the hard work of the good folks at the IWW, the Black Rose Historical and Mutual Aid Society, some solid local comrades, and caring anarchists from around the world, Rafael Adames, killed by the LAPD back in 1913 during what came to be known as the Christmas Day Riot, finally has a marker for his grave.

Continue reading

2 Minutes on Broadway and 5th

Not my usual 2 minutes of random street corners, but I thought this one might be of interest. A makeshift memorial for Olivia Gamboa, a bus driver killed in an early morning crash. People seemed to be moved by this tragic accident, showing their empathy for another working person, someone they might have encountered at some point on their way to and from work.

busdrivermem

Rest In Peace Olivia Gamboa, fellow worker that helped us get to our destinations.

More info here http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-bus-driver-killed-20130612,0,1359034.story

Cinco de Mayo: A Cultural Holiday

Image

5drinkodb

We were driving thru the Westside today, somewhere along the border of Silver Lake and Echo Park, when we thought we saw something stupid headed our way. Sure enough, and cuz I had my camera handy, we were able to take a picture of some innocent dolt dressing up as a Mexican captain of sorts on his way to some shitty place to drink his shitty Tecate beers. Oh yeah, it’s Drinko de Mayo! We of the Chicano variety are not so learnededed on this American holiday so we decided to seek out an experience. Might as well get to know the Ethnic people that live in your city and figure out why they do the things they do.

Continue reading

Sal Si Puedes #4 Publication Release

ssp1

I’d heard rumors oh for many, many years that at long last another issue of SSP would see the light of day. I didn’t believe it, and still don’t, but CT is so convinced of its resurrection that there is an actual “Publication Release” planned for Saturday, March 9th 2013 at 8pm over at Espacio 1839 in Boyle Heights. Seeing is believing buddy. Notice it doesn’t say Release Party? I did. O pues.

If you don’t know, Sal Si Puedes is one of the best literary magazines to come out of the Eastside. I did a review of issue #3 waaaaayyy back in 2005, you should go read it.

ssp2

See, doesn’t that sound interesting? It might take another decade for the next issue to come out so if I were you I’d hurry in to get my copy. The going rate is $10 but if you mention that you heard about it on LA Eastside, CT will let you have it for $9.99 and will throw in a free knock-knock joke. Yer welcome!

See ya there!

Check out the Facebook invite here.

Espacio 1839  
1839 1st. St (near Mariachi Plaza)
323.265.3730

Hello? Hello? Anybody there?

lascartas

Where were we? It seems like a bit of time since we last spoke. I thought it was a few weeks, maybe a month or two (tops!) but it turns out this lil’ site that couldn’t has been down for more than a year. Oh well, shit happens. Mostly it was a bunch of stupid spambots and viruses, lots of digital cleanup to do, but there was also the chance that we were going to go full throttle and GET A NEW THEME! PUNCH IT UP A BIT! GET BACK IN THE GAME! but sadly the writing was on the wall. Or wasn’t actually. Posting was getting scarce, many of the LAE participants were doing other things, and who has time for blogs anymore anyways?

We did this for fun and to bring some attention to some of the (still) overlooked communities in our metropolis. It was also to counter the crush of new LA residents jumping off the turnip truck and declaring anything East of the beach communities as “Eastside”, an erasure of history some of us found unacceptable. Since most of us were either students or workers the demands of this miserable world constantly increased taking away what little disposable time we had for posting stuff on a blog. Besides, life is elsewhere.

I didn’t want to pull an LA City Nerd and deny access to some useful posts, so I finally got the site back up so you can go back and see some of the smart, thoughtful, and incisive commentary we contributed to the discussion of our city. As well as all the silly, controversial, crass, and pointed articles that were probably even more important. There might be some new posts happening at some point since there is still much to say, and not many people are saying the things that need to be said, but the LA Eastside you once knew is no more. Pour one for the homies.

In conclusion: the site is up, it is no longer the same, only the cards know what is to come.

Nos Vemos Pronto!

Councilman to Occupy LA: “Don’t Despair, Job Fairs Are Coming! “

This morning on the Madeleine Bland show councilman Dennis Zine got the laughs going when he bestowed some words of wisdom to all those participants of Occupy LA: Get a Job! You know, in the jobless “recovery”.  His great plan to accomplish this feat of full employment? Throw a “Job Fair.”

Haha! For reals? Yes, for reals.

[audio:https://laeastside.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/getajob.mp3|titles=getajob]

I went ahead and snipped together some of his inspiring babosadas, cuz I doubt you’ll want to listen to the whole thing. Oh yeah, aside from his “get a job” message he also complains about the “homeless that don’t have anything to do”, the movement is “generated by some international group”, something about socialism, “when you go to the city hall you like to see a nice environment and its sad to see people who are camped out because they have a cause, they can’t get a job”.

How very sad and disturbing it is to see the unwashed poor and the unemployed riff-raff. They should stay over in skid row where we don’t have to see them.

Fucking Hilarious.

Here’s another solution:

Fresco Community Market Is Worth A Visit

North East Los Angeles is full of wankers. Well maybe not full but teeming at the very least. They like to bitch and complain about how this area is great but if only it had this or that particular amenity they had grown accustomed to back in their old fancy community or generic suburb. Whenever I hear them whine (or mostly when I read their laments online) I want to poke them in the eyes, 3 Stooges style. Because for all that griping they are still never happy even when they get what they want. That seemed to be the case today when I finally visited this fairly new market in Hermon which was incredibly nearly empty of customers. Yes, I am arbitrarily going to use this visit to make some wild generalizations and to argue that catering to the monied hill people is a losing proposition.

 

Continue reading